Dummies’ Guide to SEO

Do you have a website or intend to have one? Your major goal, whether it’s an e-commerce site, a blog, or an instructional website, is to attract as many targeted visitors as possible. Organic search is one of the most important traffic sources, and it is quite inexpensive.

Unfortunately, if the search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing) do not deem your website authoritative or relevant enough, you will not be able to appear on the search engine results page and, as a result, you will not receive any search engine traffic. This “SEO for Dummies” essay covers the most important and straightforward aspects of search engine optimization.

What Is SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term that refers to the process of optimising It’s a way for getting a higher ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). Ads appear in the first four results after the search query.

Following the ads are the best placements; according to a Moz analysis, the top 5 results account for 67.60 percent of all clicks for a particular search query. In layman’s terms, SEO is a collection of guidelines that assists your website in appearing on the top page of search results.

Assume you own a pizza delivery service in Brooklyn. There are over 11 million results for “pizza delivery Brooklyn” on Google.

You won’t get nearly any organic search traffic if your website doesn’t show on the first page of search results, no matter how great your pizza is or how fast your delivery is. Although the competition is tough, you know which piece of the pie you are vying for.

SEO Definitions

A user enters a word or phrase into a search engine as a keyword or key phrase. Consider the phrase “pizza delivery Brooklyn.” One of the most important aspects of search engine marketing is the keyword.

Long-tail keywords are search queries that are long and exceedingly specific. “The finest movie to see on your first date,” for example.

META tags are a 160-character snippet that summarises the content of a web page. META title and description tags are extremely significant because they are the first thing consumers see on a SERP when deciding whether or not to visit your website.

Page rank (PR) is a number between 0 and 10 that indicates the authority and importance of a page for a specific set of keywords. This computation is part of the Google algorithm that determines how high your website ranks on the search results page.

The visible text of a link is called anchor text. The anchor text informs search engines about the link’s relevancy to the content of the page it refers to.

On-Page and Off-Page

Any good SEO plan must include both of these components, but they must be treated separately. On-page SEO entails manipulating title tags, headings, URL structure, alt text for pictures, internal links, meta descriptions, and different aspects of responsive design and site speed optimization on your website pages (thus the name).

Off-page SEO is all about boosting your website’s authority on the internet. The idea is straightforward: the more resources that link to your website, the more trustworthy it is. 

Search Engine Optimization Tools

There three main search engine optimization tools and they all – wouldn’t you know it – come from Google:

• Google Analytics – a free service that tracks and reports website traffic
• Google Search Console – free service that helps you optimize the visibility of your website
• Keyword Planner – a tool to research keywords

SEO Checklist 2021

SEO is a time-consuming technique that relies on a thorough understanding of Google’s ranking algorithms. However, following all of Google’s regulations is nearly impossible. Our “search engine optimization for beginners” checklist includes the most crucial and straightforward suggestions.

Keyword Analysis

• Research your keywords.

Your aim is to figure out which keywords are already producing results for you, which ones are powerful enough to put your website on the first page of a SERP, and which keywords will help you improve your SERP ranking. The Google tools described above will assist you with this.

You must optimise your pages for these keywords once you have a list of keywords. Here are some suggestions:

• Use the keyword in the title of the page
• Use friendly URLs that show the structure of your website and include primary keywords
• Use not only the keyword but also its variations throughout the text
• Use the keyword in the meta tags, especially the meta description
• Use the keyword as the anchor text
• The chosen keywords should become the centerpieces of your content

SEO-Friendly Layout

• Title tags should be 65 characters or less. Longer titles will be cut off on the search results page
• Titles should be consistent with the content
• Meta Description tags should be 160 characters or less
• Use H1 headings

Website Usability

• Your website should be mobile-friendly
• It should work on multiple browsers
• Use social plugins, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+

Content

• Your content should be unique, written by humans for humans
• The length of the content should be over 500 words, ideally around 1,000 words

Don’t even try to outsmart Google with SEO since it’s too hard to hack. However, you are on the right track if you generate customer-centric content and your website is mobile-friendly and safe. Best of luck!